


Ere the Red Sun Rises

by UffDatheGreat



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Battle for Zendikar, Eldrazi, Hi!, MTG, Magic: the Gathering - Freeform, Multi, Other, Planeswalker, Ravnica, Zendikar, etc - Freeform, sural, white mana
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-11 05:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4423562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UffDatheGreat/pseuds/UffDatheGreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gideon Jura fights to protect his adopted home of Zendikar. The plane is in turmoil. The ancient Eldrazi have awakened, and the Titans have been set free. A mere chapter in his quest to save the lives of the people of Zendikar, and defeat the alien monsters that are consuming the very existence of the plane.</p>
<p>This is in anticipation of the upcoming set, Battle for Zendikar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day's End

The air was still. Unnaturally still. Silent, with the stench of death lingering in the air. Gideon stood, the panting of his own breath the only sound to be heard on the battlefield. Alien blood dripped down his sural, plinking onto the ground. It did not hit dust when it landed; the land was so blood soaked it almost made a splash. Gideon knew all too well how much of the ground was soaked with the blood of the enemy, and how much was innocent. The hulking Eldrazi corpse behind him and the hundreds of bodies around him testified to his own effort in balancing that amount.

His breath became more regular, and he sheathed his sural. Turning, he tried to make a count of how many he had slain. He gave up after a moment, not wanting to continue separating the corpses of the Eldrazi from the bodies of the brave warriors he had fought beside. Gideon moved through and over the dead Eldrazi, making his way across the battlefield towards the city that had been under siege. He came to a few soldiers tending to their wounded, and paused. The soldiers noticed Gideon, and those who could stood up.

"General Gideon," one of the soldiers said with hesitation mixed with relief, "we didn't know if you survived."  
"How'd you do it?" A young vampire asked earnestly, her earnestness obvious in her voice. "You charged a Spawn Sire all by yourself! Command thought you were done for!"  
The Kor soldier next to the vampire made a shushing motion with his hand. "The General probably doesn't have time for stories so soon."  
"But how did you kill it? Its head is too high for any of us!"

Gideon thought back to his charge through the Eldrazi lines, sural spinning.The surest way to slay an Eldrazi was to aim for the head, or at whatever looked like a head. Most Zendikarians resorted to chopping the monsters to bit to ensure death. Gideon had a bit more reach thanks to his whip-like blades. But some Eldrazi towered over all.

"It's actually quite simple solider." Gideon said with a slight smile and a wink. "The backs of the smaller ones makes a very nice ramp to leap from."  
The vampire's jaw dropped and the Kor looked a bit surprised.  
"Remember, they can be beaten." Gideon said, looking both soldiers in the eye.  
"Right," a soldier sitting behind the group scoffed, "beings that destroy everything in their paths can be beaten. It's only a matter of time." He turned indignantly away, staring at the ground.

Gideon frowned and stepped forward, then saw the soldier wasn't staring at the ground. He was staring at his own amputated leg.  
"Don't mind him sir." The Kor soldier said, glancing at the amputee. "His spirits went down when a chomper got his leg towards the end." The Kor looked at Gideon with what seemed like desperation. "All our spirits are down. We've lost a lot of good fighters."

Gideon met the Kor's gaze. "And they lost more." He turned to the other soldiers, both those wounded and standing. "We're alive because our brothers and sisters in arms fought along side us. Now is not the time to stop fighting just because they're no longer next to us. Now is when we fight harder than ever."

The soldiers stood a little straighter at Gideon's words, the wounded shifting to sit more upright. The human who had scoffed a moment before looked back at Gideon with a singular spark of hope. Gideon looked over the warriors and hoped it would keep them moving till more help got here.

"Now, where's Unified Command?" Gideon asked the Kor soldier.  
"Quarter of a mile west of here." The Kor responded, pointing. "What's left of them. Anyone still alive saw the signal to gather." He was referring to the magical flare shot up by the Merfolk Recon Corps. Gideon nodded. He had missed the flare. Being waist deep in Eldrazi tended to cause you to miss the things that weren't trying to kill you.

"I'm heading there now. Anyone who wants to accompany me can. We leave immediately." Gideon declared. The Kor looked over the rest of the soldiers.  
"Ill join you sir." He said. "I'm Glairtrion."  
Gideon nodded again. He still wasn't used to being called sir.  
"And me!" Blurted out the young vampire. "Mal-Scion. At your service. But call me Mal."  
Glairtrion frowned. "I don't think that's such a..."

Gideon placed a hand on both their shoulders. He looked at Glairtrion. "We don't have time to delay." He looked at Mal-Scion. "If you can keep up, then do so. Let's go." He dropped his arms and moved to the edge of the camp. "Everyone else, tend to each other. Stay alive. Only by surviving this, together, will we truly be victors."

The soldiers staying behind saluted as the three left the camp and broke into a jog. The road was pulled with dead Eldrazi and the rubble graves of fallen Zendikarians. Enough of a path remained to hint at the road, so the trio's progress wasn't too hindered. Unless they came across any Eldrazi stragglers, that was.

As they went, Gideon looked back at the two soldiers. A vampire and a Kor, fighting side by side. "Not too long ago, these two would've been at each others throats." Gideon thought. But war tended to make allies in strange places. Glairtrion didn't look as young as Mal-Scion, but Kor tended to be harder to read. He gave off the uncertainty of youth. The fact that these two, young as they were, fought side by side gave Gideon hope for a better Zendikar when all was said and done.

"If there was a Zendikar after all this." Gideon thought. His ponderings were interrupted as Mal-Scion moved to jog alongside him. "No," Gideon reminded himself, "she said to call her Mal."

Mal look as if she was about to ask something, but couldn't find the words.  
"Ah, General..." She said hesitantly.  
Gideon shook his head. "No need for that. Call me Gideon."  
Mal smiled at that. "Yes sir. I mean Gideon." She had an especially toothy grin for a vampire.  
They started climbing a hill as she spoke "I just wanted to ask... Did you really hold the breach in the walls of the Halimar Refuge singlehandedly for 5 hours by yourself? I think that you did, cause my sire-brother was there and he said he saw you but I think you fought longer and I wanted to prove him wrong and..." She trailed off, looking earnestly at Gideon.

They reached the ridge of the hill, and Gideon slowed the pace to a walk. The Unified a Command camp was just below, multicolored tents lining the valley. He turned to Mal. "I lost track of time after hour 6." He said with a light chuckle. "But by then I was keeping track of time by how many Eldrazi were stacked up around me.  
Mal's face lit up and she gave a goofy grin. "Just wait till I tell my sire-brother! He'll believe you're the greatest death dealer now!" She took a quill and a scrap of paper from a pouch on her belt, pricked her arm with the quill, and started writing. Glairtrion moved closer and spoke quietly to Mal. Gideon watched, not bothering to strain to listen. Those two would be fine.

Glairtrion looked off to the camp below, the sun setting behind him, trying to move the conversation towards more pressing issues. "It looks like refugees have started to gather just past the camp." He said, pointing.  
Gideon looked, and sure enough, he could make out unarmed people moving through worn tents.  
"Looks like more survived than I thought." Gideon said, placing his hands on his belt buckle. "We may have lost the city, but at least the people are safe..." His words trailed off.

Out past the camp along the opposing ridge of hills, a pillar of dust to rose.

Eldrazi.


	2. United we stand. Divided we fall.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon Jura fights to protect refugees and his fellow soldiers on Zendkiar from an Eldrazi swarm. Outnumbered, Gideon enters the fray of battle.

A mass of writhing bodies and multicolored tentacles emerged over the tops of the hills and began poring down towards the camp. Thousands of Eldrazi spilled down the hills. The thundering of their charge echoed across the hills and reverberated in Gideon's chest. Glairtrion spat out a curse. Mal almost dropped her quill.

Glairtrion spoke again. "They must've pulled back and gone around, letting us think we won while flanking us all the while."  
"They're that smart?" Mal asked. "They just attacked us head on before."  
"That was when they first made landfall here. We knew they were coming, so a head on attack was a good cover. Now what do we do? There's too few of us left General." Glairtrion turned. "General Gideon?" But Gideon was gone, golden light marking where his footsteps were moments before, his trail receding down the hill. Mal looked at Glairtrion, and they took after him, the sun setting behind them.

Gideon was dashing down the hill, surrounded by a glowing aura of yellow light, moving far faster than a normal human. Bands of the yellow light wrapped themselves around his limbs, spinning around, up, and flowing back behind him. Trails of intertwined light creating a near sphere of light.

"No." Gideon's thoughts were a fire. "Not this time. Not while I draw breath."

He reached the camp in moments, barreling through the tents. All of them were empty. Everyone who could hold a weapon was scrambling to form ranks in front of the refugees. The refugees themselves were somberly, yet quickly, packing small amounts of their already meager belongings and retreating. If these people knew anything, it was how to run away.

 

The Eldrazi were a swarm, a storm. They crashed into the defenders, tentacles battering down shields and tossing soldiers aside. The Eldrazi drove a wedge from a single point into the defenders. Men, Kor, and vampires cried out as the Eldrazi started tearing at them. Among the refugees, a baby cried out

There was a flare of yellow light and a vortex plummeted from the sky and slammed into the ground. Eldrazi were blown backwards. Tentacles went flying. Blood rained down from the sky. The front of the Eldrazi host reared back in one mass, pausing. 

Dust settled quickly and yellow light faded. Gideon crouched in a small crater in the ground, his fist and shield buried halfway into the earth. Heiromancy fading, his sural raised behind him. His lifted his head, staring into the Eldrazi.

"Not this time."

His voice reverberated out into the hills, and yellow light began to seem from the ground around him. Small diamonds of light, twinkling just above the ground. Gideon flexed muscles in his arm and twisted, cracking the hard earth and pulling out his shield. He stood to his full height and flicked his sural, the ends cracking. The soldiers around him stared, armed still raised. Gideon pointed to the Eldrazi, and called out with a voice that pierced every ear. Each word driving to the core.

"Fight now! We will not go quietly into the night! For home! For brother! It is a sore time, a right time! Ere the Land Roils!"

Gideon's words ended in a bellowing shout, and the defenders raised their voices in guttural cry of defiance. Sheer will reverberated outwards in a call to survive. The yellow diamond light swirled around Gideon, and he charged, becoming a shining spear in the air. Every warrior behind him lifted their shields, leveled their weapons, and followed, thundering, after Gideon. They formed ranks as they ran, and as they did the yellow light swirled ahead of them, coating their shields and swords with a deadly sheen.

The yellow diamonds whirled around Gideon's sural as he flew forward, interlocking and attaching themselves to the four whips, extending their length three fold. Gideon cast them forward and the shining whips tore through three Eldrazi before cutting deeply into a larger one. Gideon pulled, and the sural tore the large Eldrazi into pieces with a resounding cracking of bones and flesh. Then Gideon hit the Eldrazi front lines.

Soldiers smashed into Eldrazi, spears and swords slicing flesh, shields and armor crushing bones. The Eldrazi drones milled about, confused as their brood mates died around them. They weren't used to being attacked. The larger Eldrazi, in turn, milled about for a moment. But as the one Gideon had slain hit the ground, they turned, faceless flesh staring at the attackers.

Like a monster from the deep, each Eldrazi tensed up as one, even as the Zendikarians hacked everything in reach. As one mass, the Eldrazi lashed out, tentacles flying forwards throwing soldiers to the side, claws raking flesh. Kor, human, Merfolk, and vampire alike began screaming as the Eldrazi began pushing back, killing and gaining ground in the same motion.

Gideon was a swirling tempest of light, sural, and dead Eldrazi. He fought with the force of 10 men. And where he fought, the line held. Sural danced in the air, spinning and dicing as if they had a mind of their own. Slamming through flesh as Gideon manipulated the whip-blades with minuet motions of his arm. His shield arm cleaved through Eldrazi skull and bone. Anything alien that came close was shredded. 

A large Eldrazi stepped forward and thrust a muscular alien arm at Gideon, but it didn't make it past the sural. The arm was minced as it moved forwards, small chunks of flesh spinning off and dropping to the ground. The Eldrazi recoiled in pain, teetering backwards. A flash of yellow light erupted from the ground, and golden chains drug the beast to the earth. Zendikarian soldiers decimated the hulking body as it writhed in pain.

Gideon continued his whirl, elegant in his slaughter; as graceful as the blows he landed. He pressed forwards, leading by example as the soldiers behind him followed his carved path through the horde. Whenever a soldier attacked alone, he was inevitably thrown back by the Eldrazi he had struck at. When the fighters struck out together, they moved just a bit faster, their weapons gleaming with a faint yellow light. As they did, and as the Eldrazi fell before them, Gideon's own light grew brighter.

An Eldrazi drone leapt at Gideon's head, claws extended. Gideon's shield shone brightly with yellow light, and he slammed his shield up into the drone's chest, shattering bone, and without breaking his dance like spin, plowed the drone into the ground. Gideon yanked back, but his arm didn't come up. His shield had stuck, unexpectedly, in the ground. He had driven the shield too far through the drone. He pulled, but his shield was too deep.

A high scream caused Gideon to snap his head around. Mal was in the air, held by a hulking Eldrazi. The young vampire hacked at the tentacle, to no avail. Gideon tugged at his shield. He had to get there. He had to. For Mal. For the countless lives that that towering Eldrazi would claim if he didn't stop it.

 

A voice called out. "Mal!" But it wasn't Gideon's voice. Gideon slashed downwards and across with his sural, slaying two more Eldrazi. He tugged again at his shield, looking over and seeing Glairtrion charge the huge Eldrazi. His face tentacles curled in anger, sword raised. The Kor drove his sword into the side of the Eldrazi brute. The Eldrazi face bone turned down, and a tentacle bashed Glairtrion into the air. He hit the ground and Mal screamed again.

"No!" Gideon let go of his shield and his fist became a yellow sphere. He punched the ground, splintering the earth and freeing his shield. He grabbed his shield and spun, spinning off shards of yellow light, his shield held like a discus. At the end of his spin, he threw his shield at the Eldrazi with a blinding speed, a cone of light drilled through the air around and behind the shield as it flew. The shield hit the head of the Eldrazi, obliterating the bone and liquifying the flesh.

Gideon was an instant behind the shining shield, a war cry emanating from his throat, sural whipping down and splitting the Eldrazi down the center. Two halves of the Eldrazi beast fell, hitting the ground with a deep thud. Gideon got up from the ground, yellow light sparking from his hand, and his shield flew back to him. He flicked the Eldrazi blood of his sural, and looked for Glairtrion and Mal. An Eldrazi clawed at Gideon from behind, but swinging his shield and arm up ninety degrees, he shattered the bone face of the drone.

Mal had been dropped as the huge Eldrazi fell, and as Gideon dispatched the drone, he saw her kneeling over Glairtrion. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed, begging the Kor to come back. But Glairtrion's neck was bent at an odd angle, and there was no motion of breathing in his chest. 

Mal took a shuddering breath, then picked up Glairtrion's sword along with her own. Gideon saw a spark of rage in her eyes, even as the tears flowed. She let out a primal scream and flew at the Eldrazi still attacking the remaining scattered soldiers. She stabbed down into the enemy with such a ferocious vigor that even some of her allies, fellow vampires, took uneasy notice.

Gideon slashed his way through two drones that charged at him, perching upon one half of the corpse that he had just made out of the large Eldrazi. He scanned the battlefield. The majority of the Eldrazi drones seemed to be tied up with the Zendikarian army. But they were quickly becoming surrounded. There were just too many Eldrazi. 

Gideon breathed deeply for a moment, a small amount of respite. The sun was setting above him, casting a long shadow from his spot upon the Eldrazi corpse. On another world, he would be standing on the wall of a Boros Garrison, watching troops train below. Not here though.

He was jolted from his thoughts as a swarm of drones surged towards him. Gideon struck downwards, slicing through any Eldrazi that came near, but for each one he killed another two ran past. He watched as the Eldrazi completed their course, passing him and surrounding the muilti-species warriors, leaving them in a circle.

But they did not stop there. Gideon sucked in a quick breath as the Eldrazi flowed and surround the Zendikarian army, and then streamed on towards the refugee camp. The defenders had made some headway with their charge, but it would be a matter of moments before the Eldrazi reached the unarmed civilians.

Gideon saw the civilians panic, running frantically. Families trying to stay together, people falling over one another. An old Kor hobbling away, holding hands with two younger Kor. Vampires holding Merfolk children as their parents carried what they could. Humans struggling with oxen. Desperation radiated as the people fled. But they couldn't outrun the Eldrazi.

Gideon began running towards the camp, crushing his way through the Eldrazi and getting out in front of them. He passed a soldier ripped in half by tentacles, a Kor missing an arm, the dead and dying all around the feet of the living. Gideon saw Mal, Glairtrion's sword in hand and tears still streaming from her face, slashing desperately at everything around her. It was no longer the rage filled blows, but desperate strikes as she was about to be overwhelmed.

Gideon skidded to a halt between the Eldrazi and the refugee camp. The swarm of Eldrazi looked endless as it barreled towards him. Time seemed to slow drastically for Gideon. How could he fight them all? He couldn't stop them. He was just one man. People were going to die. Gideon's hands began to shake. How dare he lead soldiers in a charge away from their families? Gideon dropped his gaze to his shadow growing on the ground. The sun was setting. Night wouldn't stop the Eldrazi. It would only ensure a massacre.

Gideon saw Mal go down. The weight of too many Eldrazi drones, pulling her down to slashing claws. He heard the crying of the children behind him. He felt the fear in their voices. It was all too much. Gideon couldn't take it. His own mind threatened to break. He wanted to just make it all be silent. To planeswalk away from everything.

"See now? See what your hubris has done yet again." Heliod. "You couldn't save your Irregulars. You can't save this world either." He whispered, a ghost in Gideon's own mind. "You have failed. You are alone."

Gideon felt something. Deep within his mind and chest at the same time. Within himself. One word.  
"No."

Gideon burned.

His eyes shot open and flared with fiery golden light, beams shooting from the ground to create a pillar of energy. Beams shot into the sky, and Gideon was enveloped in a brilliant golden spotlight. Radiant beams swirled in a circular pattern, moving faster and faster till the air began to warp around the light. Gideon felt the golden light, so much more powerful than the yellow light of his regular Heiromancy. He reached out and grabbed hold of the tapestry of gold light, and pulled. The illustrious light bent, completing a loop within itself. Gideon, light dancing like fire from his eyes, Planeswalked.

He felt the Blind Eternities, the unfathomable chaos that existed between worlds. He took the golden light in his hands and pushed outwards, forcing the light into the void. He saw the strands of magic dissipate, eaten as they entered the Aether. His face narrowed in concentration and he felt his chest explode with heat. He was burning before, now he felt as if he was in the midst of an infinitely huge flame. He had to turn all his might to keep from being consumed. The strands of magic began to flash, then took on a deep hue. They extended into the void, arranging into almost a bridge. At least, that's what Gideon thought they were doing. It took all he had to channel to burning he felt.

A rumbling began in the earth where he stood, as forces beyond Zendikar began rocking through Gideon. He strained against the void and the light, bound by one but tethered by another. Winds whipped outwards, throwing Eldrazi backwards and casting them into confusion. Bodies heaped up in piles and the refugees cowered on the ground, holding tight.

Gideon saw, more felt, the presence of a familiar world. A world he knew. He had fought there. Bled there. He reached out, with his mind, unsure of what he was doing, and the bands of light swirled outwards from him further. He was unsure if it was 'further', but he felt more and more power channeling through him into the Aether. He pushed it further.

One thought echoed in his mind, amidst all the pain and heat that was coursing through him.  
"Together. As one. Help will come."

Shadows began to appear in the light that surrounded Gideon. Forms moving forwards. Outwards from the light.

Gideon trembled under the weight and the strain of existence and the chaos beyond. As the shadows moved out of the light, he let go of the bands of gold, fearful they would collapse. But still more forms walked through. Gideon almost fell out of the spinning golden light, but he landed, a bit staggered, and turned to see what he had done.

Standing across from him, red and silver armor glinting in the setting sun, stood a legion of Boros soldiers. At their head, Gideon spotted a familiar face and an even more unforgettable curved sword.

 

"Tajic!" Gideon called out, rushing over to the soldier and embracing him in a quick bear hug.  
"Gideon Jura!" Tajic exclaimed, his deep voice surprised. "What in the Ten Guilds is going on?"  
Gideon, already a few steps back, merely pointed toward the Eldrazi. Confused and blinded by the outburst of white mana for its duration, they were swarming again, gaining speed and barreling toward the newcomers.

Tajic grinned. This was something the Champion understood. A good fight. "What is it with you and getting into fights, Jura? Now we have to finish what you've started, like always." He turned, raising his massive sword in one hand. "Legionnaires!" He bellowed. Gideon couldn't contain his smile.

The Boros troops, disoriented as they were, responded to their leader's call. Well trained motions brought shields to the front, interlocking and forming a steel wall. Pikemen arrayed themselves behind, stepping up where others stepped back. Swords were drawn and positions taken. Tajic let out a battle cry, and the legionaries echoed with one voice. These soldiers would not falter. Not as long as they drew breath.

Gideon turned, the Eldrazi nearly upon them. His grin still on his face, he flicked out his sural. Golden light danced along the whip-blades, and his eyes shown. Not with his usual yellow light. They shown gold.

Now, he was not alone.  
Now, he could do anything.


End file.
